This invention relates to an auxiliary seat for bicycles, and particularly to such a seat for safely and comfortably supporting a child as a passenger on a bicycle ridden by an adult.
Auxiliary seats for bicycles are well known, the most common of which are those which are supported on the rear fender of the bicycle behind the main seat. Such seats have a number of disadvantages. The major problem is that the child is seated behind the adult, thus making it impossible for the adult riding on the main seat of the bicycle to maintain visual contact with the child for safety reasons. Because of the rearward disposition of such seats behind the main bicycle seat, the momentum generated when negotiating turns creates a tendency to throw the child sideways off of the rearwardly disposed seat. Also, the child's view is blocked by the adult, thus significantly detracting from the riding experience on the part of the child passenger. Such fender-mounted seats also require special hardware and fasteners by means of which they are permanently attached to the bicycle rear fender or frame.
Auxiliary seats which are mounted forwardly of the main seat on bicycles are also known. However, most of those seats are duplicates of the standard bicycle seat and are mounted by special brackets and hardware requiring the use of fasteners and tools. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,550,200 (Murrell), 2,448,867 (Darden), 2,234,299 (Christy), and 579,514 (Collins) all are in that general category.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,305,532 issued to John F. Reminger discloses a carrier for mounting on the horizontal bar of a man's bicycle, forwardly of the main seat. The embodiment shown in FIG. 11 of the Reminger patent is mounted on the horizontal bar of the bicycle by means of two downwardly depending gripping arms; however, special, resilient tension members in the form of supporting wires are hooked to the side walls of the carrier, and are required to secure the carrier in place on the bicycle frame.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,632,453 issued to John D. Robbin et al also discloses an auxiliary seat mounted on the horizontal bar of a man's bicycle, forwardly of the main seat. However, the auxiliary seat is of the same structure and configuration as a standard bicycle seat, and is supported on a post. The post is secured to the horizontal bar of the bicycle by means of a two-piece tubular assembly which is secured around the horizontal bar by means of hose clamps.
There thus exists a need for an auxiliary seat which may be quickly and easily mounted on the horizontal bar of a bicycle, forwardly of the main seat, and which will comfortably and safely support passengers.